Beau Bennett, a first-round pick in 2010, joined the team about a month after nearly making the roster out of training camp. He takes the spot of Eric Tangradi, a former top prospect who, after starting the season on Evgeni Malkin's wing, wound up a healthy scratch and eventually netted Pittsburgh a seventh-round draft pick from the Winnipeg Jets.

Bennett is the latest player to get an apparent shot in Pittsburgh's top six—we're talking over the course of several years, dating back to Nils Ekman and including such names as Colby Armstrong, Janne Pesonen, Erik Christensen, Miroslav Satan, Chris Bourque, Nick Johnson, Luca Caputi, Mike Comrie and Zach Boychuk. Save for Boychuk, a recent waiver-wire pickup, none of those players is with the team anymore—and now you can throw Tangradi's name on the pile.

On Twitter, Brendan Shorts compiled his own list. He came up with an unbelievable 28 players, including Bennett, since 2006.

The 28 wingers the Pens have used with 87 or 71 since 06-07: Armstrong, Christensen, Ekman, Malone, Ouellet, Recchi, Staal, Talbot, Hossa

Could Tyler Kennedy be the next ex-Penguin on that list? The 26-year-old hasn't delivered on the promise of his 21-goal season in 2010-11 and has two points so far in 2013, with his only goal coming on a disputed tip of a Paul Martin shot in the season opener. Kennedy, in short, shoots a ton, but doesn't score enough—that's been the case for his entire career.

The writing could be on the wall for Kennedy, based on comments by GM Ray Shero on Wednesday night.

"With TK, and I know the coaches have talked to him, he's a guy that needs to pick up his play and it's important for him to do so," Shero told reporters, according to The Hockey Writers' Mike Colligan.

This all an issue because Malkin and James Neal are All-Stars—in Malkin's case, an MVP—who essentially have nobody to play with; Nine of Malkin's 16 points and eight of Neal's 13 have come on the power play. Sidney Crosby is also skating with Chris Kunitz and Pascal Dupuis. The latter is a solid, essentially complete player coming off a 25-goal season, but a typical first-liner he is not.

So, enter Bennett (seven goals, 18 assists 35 games with AHL Wilkes-Barre), a skilled, 6-2, 207-pound right winger who impressed the Penguins enough to be one of the team's last cuts as a 21-year-old. At the time, the team talked of him improving his north-south game, which is necessary to exist in coach Dan Bylsma's system—just ask Alexei Kovalev.

Another reason Bennett was sent down: he wouldn't have to clear waivers, as was the case with Tangradi. The Penguins' hope, no doubt, is that the question doesn't come up again.

Bylsma said on Thursday that Bennett would indeed get a shot at top-six minutes at some point, though not necessarily in his first game.

“He’s earned a call up. He’s played exceptional this year,” Bylsma said. “He’s added to his game defensively, puck management, playing in the offensive zone, showing he can play in puck battle areas, down low areas, both power play and five-on-five. That’s what he’s done this year in addition to the skill that he has and play making that he had. He earned this opportunity to come up and play.”